Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel offers media its first glimpse into the $13.3 million, 25,000-square-foot Communications and Technical Operations Center, or COMTEC in Mount Clemens.

MOUNT CLEMENS, MI -- If nothing else, it'd be a great place to watch the game.

But Macomb County officials say its new communications and surveillance center equipped with a three-story video wall currently linked to 33 public intersection cameras will be much more.

On Friday Executive Mark Hackel, with Sheriff Wickersham, Emergency Management and Communications Director Vicki Worber and others hosted an open house giving the media its first glimpse into the $13.3 million, 25,000-square-foot Communications and Technical Operations Center, or COMTEC.

The technology is hi-tech and impressive, but its the concept of resource consolidation and departmental synergy that Hackel said is most remarkable.

The center will eventually house the Sheriff's Department dispatch, IT, Emergency Management and the Road Commission. Dispatch expects to transition from its current location to COMTEC within the month, Wickersham said.

The expensive center is actually a three-story refurbished section of the Macomb County Road Commission building at 117 S. Groesbeck in Mount Clemens.

The project has been in the works for three years, construction took 30 months and 70 percent of the cost was paid for with federal funds, the remainder with county improvement funds, said Hackel.

The 20-foot-by-50-foot video wall with 54 72-inch monitors is like a visual symphony of motion and colors.

The first row of the center is used by Road Commission employees who have access to software that uses real-time data to project traffic patterns and allows employees to alter signal timings as needed, said Roads Director Bob Hoepfner.

The 33 traffic cameras, five that were installed in Mount Clemens six years ago to monitor rowdy weekend bar crowds, will be accessible to the Sheriff's Department once they complete their move to the center by the end of January, Wickersham said.

Although operators are able to manually control and potentially peer into buildings and nearby homes, Wickersham said privacy will not be an issue.

The 50-foot-by-20-foot video wall is comprised of 54 70-inch monitors

Hackel said the center will handle a half-million calls per year and provide service to 400,000 Macomb County residents.

The Sheriff's Office last year assumed the dispatch function for Clinton Township and will take over Sterling Heights dispatch.

With the work load, employees won't have a lot of free time on their hands.

"It's not like they're going to be sitting around and we're going to spy on people," Wickersham said.

Eventually the county hopes to install 300 cameras for traffic and policing needs. Wickersham said the cameras will offer his deputies real-time information to more efficiently respond to crash scenes and crimes in progress.